The Centennial Witch
by KonekuChan
Summary: The Innocence was used up to defeat the Earl and the Noah, but the Fourteenth survived. Over a hundred years later, the Centennial Witch is ready to destroy humanity, but what happens when the Innocence interferes?
1. Chapter 1

Screams and gunshots echoed from the campus and hallways outside. A small group of teenagers huddled in music classroom, lights off, doors barred with whatever they could find, but they still stayed far away from the windows. None of them knew how they would escape this, or if they would even survive. The four of them were alive for now, but with the massacre going on outside, none would say they believed they would escape.

The sounds only got worse as a minute dragged by, and by then they were all considering the only way to escape they could think of. They didn't believe the police would get here in time, and three had turned to a girl, who's hands were clasped together as if she was praying, but praying for what? For the madness outside to stop? Or for her friends not to suggest what she knew they had all come to the conclusion of?

"Manna, please." A boy with red brown hair begged her, the first to speak.

The frightened girl, Manna, slowly opened her eyes. She was a model, tall and thin with plenty of curves, long, straight black hair, and pleading chocolate brown eyes. "I can't." She finally choked out, hating the fact that she was the one essentially refusing her friends life. "Summoning the Ark; playing the Fourteenth's song has been forbidden by my family since the Holy War ended over a century ago!"

"If you don't, we're all dead!" a girl with chunky red hair argued. She knew if they pled with Manna long enough, she would give in. She wasn't the type to refuse her friends if they were in trouble.

And sure enough; Manna Walker did give in. Breaking a century of observance of a carefully placed restriction, she walked over to the piano, uncovering the keys. As she sat down, her fingers immediately finding the right notes, although she had never even touched a piano before this event, a deadly prophesy in a cold, promising voice echoed in her mind, reminding her why she had avoided piano's all these years. _'You will bring the Holy War back to an Earth with no Innocence; you will be the cause of humanities destruction as you play my song and summon the Ark by your own will.'_

It was too late to stop now though. As Timcanpy, a relic from the Holy War, landed on her shoulder, she had already begun to sing. The Fourteenth Noah had patiently resided in the Walker line, waiting for this single moment.

The Millennium Earl continued playing, even though he felt the arrival of someone upon the Second Ark, which he had created only a week earlier. Whoever had arrived was coming to this room; no point in bothering to move then. And the presence was a curious one, it interested him greatly.

Finally, he was alerted to the entrance of the newcomer.

"Good Evening, Millennium Earl."

"Good Evening." The Earl replied without a hint of surprise as he turned his eyes to the location of the voice. The speaker was a young woman, rather pretty with long black hair and brown eyes. She wore a black silk and velvet dress adorned with white lace, and a lacy white hat.

"I'm sorry for bothering you." The girl apologized; "I wouldn't even be here if the Innocence hadn't cheated." 

"Should I… know who you are?" The Earl asked, a little perplexed now.

"Only in the general sort of way." She replied with a weak shrug. "I am Manna Walker, the Centennial Witch. I'm sure if you remember the full prophecy of the Destroyer of Time, you can figure the rest out." She smiled fondly.

The Earl was smiling very widely now. "Ah! I didn't think I'd get the chance to meet you, dear. So, the Innocence cheated?"

Manna nodded in annoyance, "I was going to dispose of those kind four; descendants of other exorcists who encouraged my awakening, but the Innocence took them from me. I've decided to chase them down so I don't leave any loose ends behind me, and I was wondering, Lord Earl, if you would help a new player like me?" she asked a little shyly.

The Earl chuckled, "Of course my dear. I'll introduce you to the Noah; I think we could both benefit from working together." He replied, standing from the piano and holding out an arm. "And maybe, I'll get the chance to introduce you to your great grandfather. Won't that be fun?"

The Centennial Witch took the Earls arm, "I also must thank Hevlaska; for not revealing the full prophesy." She agreed, smiling coldly, "I'm sure she deserves to see the results of her decision."

"Well then, come my dear; so we can get started on this next Act of the play of humanity's destruction."


	2. Chapter 2

To say there was chaos at the Black Order would have easily been an understatement. So much had happened in the last week, and the four strangers who suddenly appeared in a flash of light before Hevlaska didn't exactly receive the warmest welcome. Were they Noah, come to take back the Akuma Egg Plant inside the Ark?

Allen and Kanda were the first two exorcists to arrive among the scientists, and Kanda immediately unsheathed Mugen, holding the blade to the throat of a half-Japanese boy with blue eyes. "Who are you, how did you get in here?" Kanda growled.

"Watch it with that thing!" The boy who was probably sixteen or so snarled back, foolishly brave for having a Katana so close to him.

Allen decided to ignore Kanda, watching the other three closely as the Clown Crown invocated. The four all seemed confused; and one of the other boys; a kid with red-brown hair and hazel eyes seemed to be studying Allen, Kanda, and Komui, who had just arrived closely. He was no less confused than the others, in fact, he seemed to be more confused.

"You three.." the hazel-eyed boy spoke up, indicating Allen, Kanda, and Komui. "You wouldn't happen to be Allen Walker, Yuu Kanda, and Komui Lee, would you?"

Kanda's glare immediately shifted, "Don't call me Yuu."

Allen resisted the urge to burry his face in his hands. They still hadn't figured out if these newcomers were Noah or not, and they were technically outnumbered by them for now.

The hazel-eyed boy ignored Kanda, and turned to his half-Japanese friend. In a surprisingly level voice he said, "Well, we're either hallucinating or dead. I'm not sure which one is more likely in our situation."

"I don't think we're dead." A girl with green eyes and chunky red hair piped up, "But it's really unlikely for us to be hallucinating, unless the entire day was just a hallucination. Oh, and by the way, however we got here" She commented in a dry voice, "I ended up accidentally landing on Alexander, he's out cold." Allen could only assume she was talking about the brown-haired boy she sat next to; and was trying desperately to find something to say about this odd scene. He was almost positive they weren't Noah now; but he didn't understand how being himself meant they were dead or hallucinating.

"I may be able to provide some answers." Hevlaska, who had watched the entire scene unfold in silence finally spoke. "You're not dead," she told the four, "And they aren't enemies," she assured the others, "the Innocence brought them here."

"But, that can't be right." The hazel eyed boy spoke up, sounding dubious, "all the Innocence is gone; it was all used up to defeat the Millennium Earl about a hundred years ago." He scratched his head in confusion, "Unless… we some how time traveled? I didn't think that was possible."

Allen was staring at the four in shock now, as was everyone; except Kanda. At the revelation, his eyebrows had moved up ever so slightly in what could only be assumed as surprise. Other than that he did not move, nor did his sword. The boy at his sword point had barely changed expression, but he seemed to be more concerned with Mugen than anything else.

There was a long silence which was finally broken by Komui, "Well, I think there's a nice big story here; and only me, Allen, and Kanda really need to hear it right now." The man declared, turning to the others in the room, "So, all of you can just go back to studying the Ark." He told the other scientists; as the man pushed them from the room, ignoring the complaints he was getting, he called over his shoulder to Kanda, "You can stop threatening the boy now; We can trust Hev's word."

Kanda slowly withdrew his blade, and the hazel eyed boy looked over at Allen. "If you don't mind me asking, how long have you had the Ark? Just to give me an idea on what phase of the War we've ended up in."

The Japanese man merely kept his menacing gaze focused on the boy before him; and Allen was forced to answer, "About a week now." He replied, still feeling speechless; well, that wasn't quite right. There were several things he wanted to ask, he just couldn't figure out what to ask first.

The boy before him still seemed sorta nervous, and watched as Komui firmly shut the door and walked back over to the group. "Well, I guess.. we should probably introduce ourselves…." He stammered, "I'm Michael Keeper; I'm somewhat distantly descended from two exorcists known as Miranda Lotto and Lavi. Even though the Bookman clan doesn't really exist from our own time, I still read through all the old records of the.. err, this war, and that sort of stuff. Umm…" He looked between the other two teenagers who were conscious, the boy known as 'Alex' was still knocked out.

There was a silent battle of wills between the half-Japanese boy and the redheaded girl, and finally the girl sighed and looked at the three exorcists. "I'm Emily Cross; tracing my lineage back I'm the great granddaughter of Marian Cross on my Father's side, and Cloud Nyne on my Mother's Side." She told them, her own blue eyes strangely defiant. She looked over at the other boy who had been on the other end of Kanda's sword and spoke again, "That kid is known as Shou Kanda. I'll give you one guess." She said simply.

Now, Kanda looked seriously surprised, but they were interrupted by a number of loud knocks at the door.

"Komui, what's the meaning of this?" Rouvelier's voice bellowed from the other side.

The man hesitated for a second before opening the door, admitting Rouvelier and Link, who had somehow gotten pushed out with the scientists. "I'm sorry, Inspector," Komui apologized simply, we have a small situation in here."

Link looked around at the four new teenagers, "Who are they?"

"You've got to be kidding! We've already introduced ourselves!" Emily flared; "And there's a much worse situation on our hands as it is!"

"Such as, why there are four pieces of Innocence out? Were you trying to hide new accommodators from me, Komui?" Rouvelier accused.

"That is not what happened." Hevlaska cut in; as Emily, Michael and Shou all noticed odd pieces of innocence by them, "The innocence has just pulled them from the future; they are the accommodators to each piece."

"From the future?" Rouvelier looked interested now, "So, I take it the Earl was not defeated if you are here now?"

"It didn't sound like it…" Allen disagreed.

"No, the Earl was defeated, but…" Michael trailed off. "Well, I don't really want to risk messing anything up, but from what I've read, the Heart was used to defeat the Earl and turn the Noah into ordinary humans once more, and all the Akuma disappeared, the Innocence did too, because the energy from the Heart got used up, but since the Akuma were gone, it didn't bother anyone that much. But…. There's a new problem now." He explained quietly.

"A new problem?" Allen asked, confused.

"I think.." Rouvelier stated quietly, "that we need to have a nice long talk about all of this somewhere more comfortable. That is, if you don't have anything else to add that these new accommodators couldn't tell us?"

Hevlaska seemed to hesitate for the briefest of moments before shaking her head.

"Fine then, lets go." He ordered, "And bring your Innocence with you."

None of the teens looked happy about being bossed around; but began to follow, Link picking up the unconscious Alex. Michael, however, trailed behind, looking at Hevlaska. "You know, don't you?" she asked calmly.

"I don't blame you for not telling anyone the second part of the prophesy." He replied, "If you had, it only would have created more problems, and there was no way the Order would have been able to win without Allen Walker. I discovered the full prophesy that had been recorded; but after seeing her, Allen Walker's descendant, I didn't think someone so innocent could bring about the end of the world. It's my own fault for hesitating. It'd be great if Manna could be returned to herself, but I doubt it's possible. So, I want to say this right now." Michael's voice was even and serious, without any hesitation, "If I get the chance, I will stop the prophesy of the Destroyer of Time and the Centennial Witch. I will kill Manna Walker."


	3. Chapter 3

"Michael!" Emily hissed at the bookman exorcist as he caught up with the rest of the group, "We're not really considering staying here, are we?"

"Manna'll probably come after us as it is; this place is safest." Michael reasoned, "Well, except for the attack that's probably going to come any day, heck, any minute now. But besides that-"

"What?" Emily demanded in a loud whisper.

"According to the records, sometime soon the Earl will launch an attack to try to get the Akuma egg back. A number of people will be killed, and the Black Order will end up finding a new base." Michael explained calmly.

"And don't you think while staying here we might be in a ton of danger?"

"No more so than anywhere else."

"Besides, how could Manna come after us?"

The boy silently cursed his reckless tongue. He knew no one would approve of his plan to kill Manna; and he had never told anyone of the prophesy. But to explain about it here… he'd be inviting too much trouble; the Black Order wouldn't be able to win without Manna's great grandfather, he was sure of that. But if they knew about the Centennial Witch, they would probably kill Allen, thus dooming humanity anyway. There really wasn't an easy answer here, was there?

"We knew she could summon the Ark, and it's become very clear there was a real reason as to why that was forbidden by the Walker family, besides just bad memories. We don't know what she can do now. For now, I'm assuming she's something like a new Millennium Earl. She'll probably know the Innocence brought us here, and she'll probably try to find us so we don't get in her way. That's my best guess at least. And if not, we can at least learn to use the Innocence to try to stop her.. as soon as we figure out how to get back to our own time, of course."

Emily stared him down, and for a second, Michael feared he hadn't convinced her.

"I still don't like this." She hissed at him, "I don't like being in this time period either. You know what history says about this time, sure the world was saved from destruction, but the blatant disregard for human life! This is why I'm an atheist."

"I don't know if I'd say that so loud around here; from the future or not, I don't think they'd care if they wanted to try someone for heresy." Michael cautioned nervously, looking forward to make sure no one else had heard her.

"They can try." Emily replied darkly. She too looked forward, to make sure she was still following everyone, "Shou and Yuu both have the same attitude, it seems." She noted with slight amusement in her voice, easily changing the subject.

"That's another thing; it seems it's probably a very bad idea to call him Yuu." Michael said, pointing to the elder Japanese man.

Any other comments were quieted as they all entered Komui's office. The boy named Alex, still passed out was laid on a couch, and everyone else found places they could sit down.

"So, I believe we would like some explanations from you. I'm sure you can guess, we'd like to know a lot about what happens in the future." Rouvelier said, bringing his fingertips together.

Emily and Shou immediately looked at Michael.

"Why me?" Michael demanded.

"You're the one who read all of it." Emily pointed out.

Instead of arguing more, the boy decided to just give up, "Fine." He muttered under his breath, and then looked up, "Well, long story short, the Heart was used to defeat the Millennium Earl and turn all the Noah back into normal humans. However, this used up all of the Heart's power, and so all the innocence was destroyed. However, considering there weren't any more Akuma, that wasn't too much of a problem."

"Where is the Heart? Who has it?" Rouvelier demanded, "I want more details!"

"I'm sure you do." Michael shrugged, "But, in what I've read, no one bothered to record who the Heart belonged to, and I don't know how much more I really should tell anyone; after all if I give you guys knowledge from the future, how will that affect our time? We could really mess up a lot of things if we're not careful."

Michael was rather proud of that response, but Rouvelier looked less than happy. "How about this," Michael replied, trying to not cause too many problems, "As I'm technically a Bookman, I'll confer wit the Bookman of this time to determine the correct course of action; that way we'll have a third-party a totally neutral decision, if I get the okay, I'll tell you everything, but if I'm told no, you have to respect that."

Rouvelier was silent for a long time, until finally he growled his reply. "Fine, but we will be speaking to Bookman right after this."

"If all of the Akuma are gone, what problems could there be, that would make the Innocence pull you from your time?" Komui asked.

"Well…." Michael trailed off, trying to put his thoughts in order.

This time it was Emily who got annoyed in the pause, and filled in for him. "Just because there aren't any Noah or Akuma doesn't mean there are any problems. There are some people who show the absolute worst of human nature, and our school got caught in one of those displays.

"There are big crime gangs; and one of them, for whatever reason decided to do a massacre of our school. We were all hiding out in one of the classrooms, but it didn't sound like any help was coming anytime soon. So, we talked one of our friends, into summoning an entrance to the Ark."

"The Ark?" Allen echoed, sounding surprised.

"Yes. Even after the war ended, the Walker Family still had the ability to summon the doorways to the Ark. But, for whatever reason, doing so was determined forbidden by the family; we always figured it was just to prevent bad memories of this time period, and it was never really so important, so none of us had ever brought it up before. But now… It was a way to get out of a situation that we were probably going to all die from." Emily continued. "At first, Manna, our friend, didn't want to; the restriction, you know? But we ended up convincing her in the end… she's a really kind person, always willing to help if her friends are in trouble. Well, we convinced her, and then we found out there had been a real reason the Walkers had forbidden summoning the Ark."

Allen suddenly felt very uncomfortable; as if for some reason Link and Rouvelier were staring a hole into the back of his neck. He didn't know how he played the song for the Ark! If he could just ask Master Cross or something! All he had heard was from that one time from Link; that he was being watched as a person 'relating to the Fourteenth' whatever that meant.

The reason for forbidding summoning the Ark; whatever had befallen Manna Walker would not be spoken of for now, however, as the white-haired boy's left eye suddenly activated. He lept to his feet right away.

"Walker!" Link demanded, racing after the boy.

"Akuma!" Allen shouted back over his shoulder, in explanation "Back where Reever and the others were! There are so many of them!"

Kanda was already gone, and Komui and Rouvelier stood to follow. "You've only just received your Innocence; stay here where it'll be safe." Komui told them; noticing that Emily had become very tense at Allen's explanation.

Rouvelier, however hung behind, eyes fixed on Michael. "It has something to do with the Fourteenth, doesn't it?" He asked in a dreadfully quiet voice.

Michael returned the stare evenly. "Yes; and I'll tell you this too; The Black Order doesn't have a hope of winning without Allen Walker." The teen felt a wild surge of pride seeing the elder man flinch and leave; now that they were alone, however, gave Emily a free hand to continue to harass him.

"Except for the attack in a couple days, huh? How about today!?" She demanded of him in a strained voice.

"Hey, I didn't ask for the exact date, I was guestimating." Michael defended.

"Guestamating?" Shou asked, raising his eyebrow ever so slightly.

"It's somewhere between a guess and an estimation." Michael explained.

"So you mean you were making an educated guess." Shou corrected.

"I don't think grammar is something to be debating on right now." Emily interrupted. "Michael, you're sure the Order will survive this?"

"Yeah." Michael affirmed, "There'll be some deaths, the Akuma egg will be destroyed; the Black Order will discover the first Level Four Akuma, but everything will turn out okay for the most part."

"If we know someone's going to die… Aren't we supposed to try to help them?" Shou asked, "Or could that whole changing the future thing actually happen if we interfere too much?"

Michael shrugged, "Depends on what movies you trust. I have no idea. But, I sort of want to make sure that Manna; or the Centennial Witch, whatever she wants to call herself won't be able to destroy our own time before trying to alter the future."

"Do you think there's a way to change her back? Get her to start being Manna again?" Emily asked in a quiet voice.

"I don't know." Michael replied, laying back. There was nothing to do but wait for the Black Order to meet this current ordeal…


End file.
